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My in-laws have Dish. They chose it because they wanted Chinese programming. If you want international channels, Dish wins.

That being said, they are on their 5th HD-DVR & 2nd or 3rd dish/switch replacement. In that same time period (4 years), my orginal HR20's have just worked.

Having more channels is one thing. But if the equipment keeps failing, what good is it?

Agree with this. My parents,mother in law,aunts and uncles all have DISH for Italian programming. I think they get like 4 or 5 new channels now. (My kids and all the younger relatives all have Directv or Comcrap)

For that DISH is good, but everytime I go there and pull up the guide and see what's on, I could never live with that. For me Directv is much better (not perfect of course by any stretch) and you'd never convince me to switch.

I know it'll never happen but if Directv ever upped their international offerings, I could probably make a few hundred in referral credits for them to switch.

With Dish Network offering more HD basic channels, having services like Blockbuster @ Home and still having SiriusXM channels I'm starting to think about switching to Dish. I was upset when Directv removed G4 because now I can't watch Nintendo E3 conferences anymore accept online and I was hoping the Tivo was going to be better than it is. To me the Dish Hopper looks more impressive than the HR34 and I feel the channel offerings are more to my taste on Dish. If your're not a sports fan I can't see why you would want to be with Directv and I'm not trying to be a troll I'm saying what I truly feel. I know some of you must have some of these feelings in the back of your head. Now that Directv is making a lot of profit I see them starting to become like cable. I know maybe one of you has to agree with me.

I don't think you can lose out making the move to Dish Network. With what you have described, it sounds like you can make the switch, find out if you would be okay with the service and, if not, you can come back to DirecTV.

Last summer, there was one moderator or former moderator who made the switch to AT&T U-verse. He said, quite frankly, that he and his wife weren't finding much value staying with DirecTV. That they were willing to give a competitor a try. That was six or more months ago. But I think the attitude was a good one.

I know most people brag up Directv because they offer many of the big sport channel packages like NFL Sunday ticket and MLB Extra Innings. To me those are the ones feeding right into their greed. I love both sports, but to get directv simply because they offer Sunday Ticket just doesn't appeal to me. I will settle for the local market team and the other games that are on tv. Plus sad thing is you can only watch one game at a time. Sure people say they got NFL ticket free with direct but that doesn't last long. Plus to me it is not worth the money you pay in the long run for those games. I like dish for it fits my budget better then what I seen the choice packages offer. I am not saying one is better but for this question I think you have to look at what you like and what they offer. Dish fits me just fine. Plus I like their smaller channel packages they offer such as Encore, HD Platinum and Epix. I can get a smaller channel package and Encore for a good price.

Well having both systems at my house and being an installer for both, i got to say most of you have no clue about Dish at all, and just make up stuff to say.

First of all, Dish holds out WAY longer in HD channels during storms, Ka band goes crappy right away. For reliability, Dish is hands down better. The directv receivers seem to always be locking up and just plain acting dumb, even the new boxes. The old hr21 through' hr23 are just plain horrible, friend of mine has a hr21 and it sometimes takes 10 seconds to get into the menu or guide. Dish's receivers have been fast forever, cant even think how long its been since any of them were slow.....maybe the webtv box i had 10 years ago.

I see absolutly no picture quality difference, have both boxes hooked up to my 58" samsung plasma. Also dish no longer does the 1440 resolution that everyone talks about, thats gone and is history. Its all 1980 now.

Now the funny thing is, Directv used to have a channel list on their main site that showed both Directv and Dish's channels, and it showed all the Dish nets channels there were in HD that directv didnt have, it was something like 30 channels. I really had no idea why Directv woudl show this lineup at all, i think they were trying to show MORE HD channels, but all their list showed was highly overpriced sunday ticket and other sports add ones that were in HD so they claimed they had more channels in HD, well ya if you pay $200 a month Directv had more channles, but i dont watch ANY of these channels or care to pay for them........

So Directv has added a whole bunch of HD channels now and never really announced or advertised it. So they basically caught up with Dish, the thing that gets me is that now Directv took down that channel list right when it would have shown how they are up to par or even surpassed dish with HD channels.......makes no sense to me at all, I would have the list back up and bragging about it immediately!!!!

Direct even has some channels dish doesnt even have in SD. Some of the cinemax channels i noticed and they are all in HD, so is HBO and most of Starz......so that puts DISH way behind now......

For a free install system, Dish's hopper will for sure beat out the HR24.

For a $100 install, the HR34 for sure blows away the hopper system. But i bet for $100 you could have 2 hoppers, so then Dish would win again.

Directv's on demand is by far above anyone elses.

Directv beats the install and flexibility points hands down with the SWM compared to 3 cables from the dish.

It sure is funny how all these Directv customers on here and bragging about Directv dont even bring up key points for the system they have.......maybe they dont even know what they can do with Directv? But yet continue to post how its better without telling why......

With Dish Network offering more HD basic channels, having services like Blockbuster @ Home and still having SiriusXM channels I'm starting to think about switching to Dish. I was upset when Directv removed G4 because now I can't watch Nintendo E3 conferences anymore accept online and I was hoping the Tivo was going to be better than it is. To me the Dish Hopper looks more impressive than the HR34 and I feel the channel offerings are more to my taste on Dish. If your're not a sports fan I can't see why you would want to be with Directv and I'm not trying to be a troll I'm saying what I truly feel. I know some of you must have some of these feelings in the back of your head. Now that Directv is making a lot of profit I see them starting to become like cable. I know maybe one of you has to agree with me.

For me, both companies have all the channels in hd that I watch, so that's not at all an issue.

Quality can be though, I'm picky, and I have never seen anyone say Dish is better than HD, (its been a while, but the last time I saw dish hd, it was not in the same ball park IMHO)

The hopper is a non starter for me. I stock pile many shows, and I refuse to get a dvr that requires me to baby sit it every night without fail. I would loose all kinds of recordings if I went on a vacation for more than a week. Not acceptable.

Directv's system is far more advanced in how you can set it up and integrate multiple dvrs and such. Dish hasn't even touched that realm.

Blockbuster is just ppv to me, so who cares...

The HR34 is a lot more flexible than the hopper system, although I must give dish props for the concept big time. It would be a thousands times better though if they didn't make you baby sit it. Till then, its not even a contest with the hr34 for me personally. For others, I can see how it could be perfect though...

Well having both systems at my house and being an installer for both, i got to say most of you have no clue about Dish at all, and just make up stuff to say.

First of all, Dish holds out WAY longer in HD channels during storms, Ka band goes crappy right away. For reliability, Dish is hands down better. The directv receivers seem to always be locking up and just plain acting dumb, even the new boxes. The old hr21 through' hr23 are just plain horrible, friend of mine has a hr21 and it sometimes takes 10 seconds to get into the menu or guide. Dish's receivers have been fast forever, cant even think how long its been since any of them were slow.....maybe the webtv box i had 10 years ago.

I see absolutly no picture quality difference, have both boxes hooked up to my 58" samsung plasma. Also dish no longer does the 1440 resolution that everyone talks about, thats gone and is history. Its all 1980 now.

Now the funny thing is, Directv used to have a channel list on their main site that showed both Directv and Dish's channels, and it showed all the Dish nets channels there were in HD that directv didnt have, it was something like 30 channels. I really had no idea why Directv woudl show this lineup at all, i think they were trying to show MORE HD channels, but all their list showed was highly overpriced sunday ticket and other sports add ones that were in HD so they claimed they had more channels in HD, well ya if you pay $200 a month Directv had more channles, but i dont watch ANY of these channels or care to pay for them........

So Directv has added a whole bunch of HD channels now and never really announced or advertised it. So they basically caught up with Dish, the thing that gets me is that now Directv took down that channel list right when it would have shown how they are up to par or even surpassed dish with HD channels.......makes no sense to me at all, I would have the list back up and bragging about it immediately!!!!

Direct even has some channels dish doesnt even have in SD. Some of the cinemax channels i noticed and they are all in HD, so is HBO and most of Starz......so that puts DISH way behind now......

For a free install system, Dish's hopper will for sure beat out the HR24.

For a $100 install, the HR34 for sure blows away the hopper system. But i bet for $100 you could have 2 hoppers, so then Dish would win again.

Directv's on demand is by far above anyone elses.

Directv beats the install and flexibility points hands down with the SWM compared to 3 cables from the dish.

It sure is funny how all these Directv customers on here and bragging about Directv dont even bring up key points for the system they have.......maybe they dont even know what they can do with Directv? But yet continue to post how its better without telling why......

Well having both systems at my house and being an installer for both, i got to say most of you have no clue about Dish at all, and just make up stuff to say.

It sure is funny how all these Directv customers on here and bragging about Directv dont even bring up key points for the system they have.......maybe they dont even know what they can do with Directv? But yet continue to post how its better without telling why......

While being like you, (installer & user) & while DirecTV is currently my "primary" TV provider (have small a la carte pkgs from both DISH & Comcast) - THAT is about to change for me ASAP!!! As far as I'm concerned, D* is going into the $hitter & I have had enough of it!

- I can absolutely NO longer stand this POS HD GUI "upgrade", that has made both of my HR20's unusable. OK, you CAN use it - as long as you DON'T mind waiting 20+ seconds EVERY time you attempt to execute normal, everyday functions. (open the guide, go to LIST, select a show to play, delete the show, etc.) NO HD DVR from the other 3 providers in my area (Comcast, U-verse, or DISH) has anywhere near this type of sluggishness.The most frustrating part of it is...this "feast for the eyes" upgrade gave me ZERO benefits from the way it was before!

I've even went thru D*'s "executive customer care center" (a joke in itself!) TWICE with these issues; I ONLY did so, because the ONLY way I could get D* to even tell me if I was under any contract, was to call their "special hotline with a special PIN" to get this info, because they will NOT put it in writing via an e-mail! (I have NO intention of getting into that issue w/D* when I cancel) BOTH times the brainbox CSR's precisely read from their prepared scripts, insulting my intelligence by telling me "I can't expect these types of technological marvels to perform any better, & that this behavior is perfectly normal" - indeed! Of course, it's also perfectly normal to have to do things like "clear NV-RAM & reboot" functions every couple days; never mind that we did NOT have to go thru this BEFORE the HD-GUI.

Of course, trying to get my receivers replaced with ones that CAN perform properly (ie: HR24's, which are really the ONLY receiver in the HR2x line that can handle the HD-GUI) is NOT something this "highly technological company with over 30k subs", can handle; there is simply NO capability for them to do this at all. Again - I did NOT ask for this stupid upgrade & I did NOT cause my receivers to stop functioning normally! And, I have absolutely NO intention of paying for the privilege of getting replacement (upgraded) receivers - AND getting stuck for another 2 years to boot!

- The fact that now we are into a quarter of 2012, & D* subs are STILL waiting on multiple basic HD channels, that THREE other providers here have ALL carried for almost TWO years now! BUT OOO OOO...we actually got ONE, SINGLE, BASIC HD CHANNEL spoon-fed out to us last week; course the ONLY reason for that one was thanks to the NCAA!

- Since we ARE saddled with so many channels in SD only, it would be more tolerable if at least the SD picture quality didn't look like VHS-SLP!

- The fact that D* has quietly decided to NOT bother doing ANY more updates on their OTA tuners, which basically makes them less useful as local stations add or change their subchannels. (we have 2 missing right now) It's even more galling that D* does not even have the balls to just tell us outright; we ONLY got this info thru multiple 3rd parties via websites like this! And ONLY D* had the stupidity of designing these tuners to be able to pick up ONLY what D* decides to feed it in their data stream in the first place - I've NEVER seen another OTA tuner made like this!

- A $5 price increase, with NO added basic HD to show for it, is an even bigger insult to me.

- It's VERY obvious to me that D* is taking "pinching pennies" to a whole new level - from (lack of) HD prog & prog drops, to "cheapening out" on their equipment design. I personally think it WILL start to come back to haunt them down the road.

- BUT by the same token, D* keeps coming out with crazy-ass delusions of things that most subs could care less about. While they can't even put up mainstream HD channels, they found the room for FOUR 3D channels - that ONLY a very tiny % of the population even cares about. Then look at their latest news release re: Ultra-HD - WOW, REALLY???EARTH TO D* - How about beefing up some of your basic functions you still have NOT finished yet - THEN go off the deep end!

Frankly, I truly think some of those high new sub#'s, do NOT actually exist; (think Enron) it never has made sense to me that D* is the ONLY TV provider that gets these kind of (new) sub numbers. Sorry, but their product is simply not THAT compelling over (some) of their competitors & neither is the pricing when all the promo's expire.

-----------------

So as so many people here say to do...instead of bitching, I AM voting with my wallet, to the tune of over $100/month to D*.If it was only a question of 1 or 2 of the issues above, I probably would not even be writing this. But the HD-GUI BS was the LAST straw!

I know most people brag up Directv because they offer many of the big sport channel packages like NFL Sunday ticket and MLB Extra Innings. To me those are the ones feeding right into their greed. I love both sports, but to get directv simply because they offer Sunday Ticket just doesn't appeal to me. I will settle for the local market team and the other games that are on tv. Plus sad thing is you can only watch one game at a time. Sure people say they got NFL ticket free with direct but that doesn't last long. Plus to me it is not worth the money you pay in the long run for those games. I like dish for it fits my budget better then what I seen the choice packages offer. I am not saying one is better but for this question I think you have to look at what you like and what they offer. Dish fits me just fine. Plus I like their smaller channel packages they offer such as Encore, HD Platinum and Epix. I can get a smaller channel package and Encore for a good price.

To say that DirecTV customers who subscribe to their sports packages are feeding into their greed is absurd. For you it may not be worth the money to subscribe to a sports package but for others it is. Subscribing to a sports package gives one the ability to "choose" the games they want to see and not have to "settle" for the local market teams like you do. Yes, that ability comes with a price. But so does everything in life. There are no free rides.

While being like you, (installer & user) & while DirecTV is currently my "primary" TV provider (have small a la carte pkgs from both DISH & Comcast) - THAT is about to change for me ASAP!!! As far as I'm concerned, D* is going into the $hitter & I have had enough of it!

- I can absolutely NO longer stand this POS HD GUI "upgrade", that has made both of my HR20's unusable. OK, you CAN use it - as long as you DON'T mind waiting 20+ seconds EVERY time you attempt to execute normal, everyday functions. (open the guide, go to LIST, select a show to play, delete the show, etc.) NO HD DVR from the other 3 providers in my area (Comcast, U-verse, or DISH) has anywhere near this type of sluggishness.The most frustrating part of it is...this "feast for the eyes" upgrade gave me ZERO benefits from the way it was before!

I've even went thru D*'s "executive customer care center" (a joke in itself!) TWICE with these issues; I ONLY did so, because the ONLY way I could get D* to even tell me if I was under any contract, was to call their "special hotline with a special PIN" to get this info, because they will NOT put it in writing via an e-mail! (I have NO intention of getting into that issue w/D* when I cancel) BOTH times the brainbox CSR's precisely read from their prepared scripts, insulting my intelligence by telling me "I can't expect these types of technological marvels to perform any better, & that this behavior is perfectly normal" - indeed! Of course, it's also perfectly normal to have to do things like "clear NV-RAM & reboot" functions every couple days; never mind that we did NOT have to go thru this BEFORE the HD-GUI.

Of course, trying to get my receivers replaced with ones that CAN perform properly (ie: HR24's, which are really the ONLY receiver in the HR2x line that can handle the HD-GUI) is NOT something this "highly technological company with over 30k subs", can handle; there is simply NO capability for them to do this at all. Again - I did NOT ask for this stupid upgrade & I did NOT cause my receivers to stop functioning normally! And, I have absolutely NO intention of paying for the privilege of getting replacement (upgraded) receivers - AND getting stuck for another 2 years to boot!

- The fact that now we are into a quarter of 2012, & D* subs are STILL waiting on multiple basic HD channels, that THREE other providers here have ALL carried for almost TWO years now! BUT OOO OOO...we actually got ONE, SINGLE, BASIC HD CHANNEL spoon-fed out to us last week; course the ONLY reason for that one was thanks to the NCAA!

- Since we ARE saddled with so many channels in SD only, it would be more tolerable if at least the SD picture quality didn't look like VHS-SLP!

- The fact that D* has quietly decided to NOT bother doing ANY more updates on their OTA tuners, which basically makes them less useful as local stations add or change their subchannels. (we have 2 missing right now) It's even more galling that D* does not even have the balls to just tell us outright; we ONLY got this info thru multiple 3rd parties via websites like this! And ONLY D* had the stupidity of designing these tuners to be able to pick up ONLY what D* decides to feed it in their data stream in the first place - I've NEVER seen another OTA tuner made like this!

- A $5 price increase, with NO added basic HD to show for it, is an even bigger insult to me.

- It's VERY obvious to me that D* is taking "pinching pennies" to a whole new level - from (lack of) HD prog & prog drops, to "cheapening out" on their equipment design. I personally think it WILL start to come back to haunt them down the road.

- BUT by the same token, D* keeps coming out with crazy-ass delusions of things that most subs could care less about. While they can't even put up mainstream HD channels, they found the room for FOUR 3D channels - that ONLY a very tiny % of the population even cares about. Then look at their latest news release re: Ultra-HD - WOW, REALLY???EARTH TO D* - How about beefing up some of your basic functions you still have NOT finished yet - THEN go off the deep end!

Frankly, I truly think some of those high new sub#'s, do NOT actually exist; (think Enron) it never has made sense to me that D* is the ONLY TV provider that gets these kind of (new) sub numbers. Sorry, but their product is simply not THAT compelling over (some) of their competitors & neither is the pricing when all the promo's expire.

-----------------

So as so many people here say to do...instead of bitching, I AM voting with my wallet, to the tune of over $100/month to D*.If it was only a question of 1 or 2 of the issues above, I probably would not even be writing this. But the HD-GUI BS was the LAST straw!

I know most people brag up Directv because they offer many of the big sport channel packages like NFL Sunday ticket and MLB Extra Innings. To me those are the ones feeding right into their greed. I love both sports, but to get directv simply because they offer Sunday Ticket just doesn't appeal to me. I will settle for the local market team and the other games that are on tv. Plus sad thing is you can only watch one game at a time. Sure people say they got NFL ticket free with direct but that doesn't last long. Plus to me it is not worth the money you pay in the long run for those games. I like dish for it fits my budget better then what I seen the choice packages offer. I am not saying one is better but for this question I think you have to look at what you like and what they offer. Dish fits me just fine. Plus I like their smaller channel packages they offer such as Encore, HD Platinum and Epix. I can get a smaller channel package and Encore for a good price.

To many of us who live out of market and MUST see every game that our team plays then Directv with Sunday Ticket is the only choice. The NFL is a passion, not just some other programming. If it were available on any other service then I would have to make a choice, but right now there is no alternative to Directv. Money is no object when it come to something that you love.

I presently have Directv but I am thinking about Dish because you can make a 211 Dish hd receiver into a dvr by paying a onetime fee of $40 and add an external drive, then you have no dvr fee. How come DTV cannot do this with thier HD receivers? I hate paying fees. I do not mind paying for programing but the fees I cannot stand. Also Dish lets you pay $99 up front and then you have HD free for life. this is another idea that DTV should use.

I presently have Directv but I am thinking about Dish because you can make a 211 Dish hd receiver into a dvr by paying a onetime fee of $40 and add an external drive, then you have no dvr fee. How come DTV cannot do this with thier HD receivers? I hate paying fees. I do not mind paying for programing but the fees I cannot stand. Also Dish lets you pay $99 up front and then you have HD free for life. this is another idea that DTV should use.

I think it's clear DirecTV and Dish are looking at different customers.Dish does seem to be focusing on a group "below" the DirecTV target.Not to suggest one customer is less than another, since "we're the customers", but in talking with DirecTV this week, their response to my questions about pricing, clearly was they don't feel that they need to lower their pricing to match other providers [in my case it was U-verse].

I know the DirecTV receivers have almost zero support for USB, so this means adding a drive to a receiver to make it a single tuner "recorder", isn't an option, and more than likely never will be.

I did some web surfing today about HD PQ, and generally you don't find too many complaints from DirecTV customers, while there are enough posts about this with Dish customers and low bit-rates, that viewers can see the difference.

Hardware posting seems to go to Dish, while PQ goes to DirecTV.

Programing only matters [maybe most important to the customer] for what the customer wants to watch. It doesn't matter who has the most, if you don't watch them.

While being like you, (installer & user) & while DirecTV is currently my "primary" TV provider (have small a la carte pkgs from both DISH & Comcast) - THAT is about to change for me ASAP!!! As far as I'm concerned, D* is going into the $hitter & I have had enough of it!

- I can absolutely NO longer stand this POS HD GUI "upgrade", that has made both of my HR20's unusable. OK, you CAN use it - as long as you DON'T mind waiting 20+ seconds EVERY time you attempt to execute normal, everyday functions. (open the guide, go to LIST, select a show to play, delete the show, etc.) NO HD DVR from the other 3 providers in my area (Comcast, U-verse, or DISH) has anywhere near this type of sluggishness.The most frustrating part of it is...this "feast for the eyes" upgrade gave me ZERO benefits from the way it was before!

I've even went thru D*'s "executive customer care center" (a joke in itself!) TWICE with these issues; I ONLY did so, because the ONLY way I could get D* to even tell me if I was under any contract, was to call their "special hotline with a special PIN" to get this info, because they will NOT put it in writing via an e-mail! (I have NO intention of getting into that issue w/D* when I cancel) BOTH times the brainbox CSR's precisely read from their prepared scripts, insulting my intelligence by telling me "I can't expect these types of technological marvels to perform any better, & that this behavior is perfectly normal" - indeed! Of course, it's also perfectly normal to have to do things like "clear NV-RAM & reboot" functions every couple days; never mind that we did NOT have to go thru this BEFORE the HD-GUI.

Of course, trying to get my receivers replaced with ones that CAN perform properly (ie: HR24's, which are really the ONLY receiver in the HR2x line that can handle the HD-GUI) is NOT something this "highly technological company with over 30k subs", can handle; there is simply NO capability for them to do this at all. Again - I did NOT ask for this stupid upgrade & I did NOT cause my receivers to stop functioning normally! And, I have absolutely NO intention of paying for the privilege of getting replacement (upgraded) receivers - AND getting stuck for another 2 years to boot!

- The fact that now we are into a quarter of 2012, & D* subs are STILL waiting on multiple basic HD channels, that THREE other providers here have ALL carried for almost TWO years now! BUT OOO OOO...we actually got ONE, SINGLE, BASIC HD CHANNEL spoon-fed out to us last week; course the ONLY reason for that one was thanks to the NCAA!

- Since we ARE saddled with so many channels in SD only, it would be more tolerable if at least the SD picture quality didn't look like VHS-SLP!

- The fact that D* has quietly decided to NOT bother doing ANY more updates on their OTA tuners, which basically makes them less useful as local stations add or change their subchannels. (we have 2 missing right now) It's even more galling that D* does not even have the balls to just tell us outright; we ONLY got this info thru multiple 3rd parties via websites like this! And ONLY D* had the stupidity of designing these tuners to be able to pick up ONLY what D* decides to feed it in their data stream in the first place - I've NEVER seen another OTA tuner made like this!

- A $5 price increase, with NO added basic HD to show for it, is an even bigger insult to me.

- It's VERY obvious to me that D* is taking "pinching pennies" to a whole new level - from (lack of) HD prog & prog drops, to "cheapening out" on their equipment design. I personally think it WILL start to come back to haunt them down the road.

- BUT by the same token, D* keeps coming out with crazy-ass delusions of things that most subs could care less about. While they can't even put up mainstream HD channels, they found the room for FOUR 3D channels - that ONLY a very tiny % of the population even cares about. Then look at their latest news release re: Ultra-HD - WOW, REALLY???EARTH TO D* - How about beefing up some of your basic functions you still have NOT finished yet - THEN go off the deep end!

Frankly, I truly think some of those high new sub#'s, do NOT actually exist; (think Enron) it never has made sense to me that D* is the ONLY TV provider that gets these kind of (new) sub numbers. Sorry, but their product is simply not THAT compelling over (some) of their competitors & neither is the pricing when all the promo's expire.

-----------------

So as so many people here say to do...instead of bitching, I AM voting with my wallet, to the tune of over $100/month to D*.If it was only a question of 1 or 2 of the issues above, I probably would not even be writing this. But the HD-GUI BS was the LAST straw!

The long delays, if you have them, will go away. They are a bug...

And while some people have issues with the hr20 and such n the new hd GUI, not everyone does. In fact I'd guess most don't, I have no issues with it, and neither do my folks, believe me, I'd hear about that big time....

Everyone increases prices, dish likes to raise them more but then only do it every other year sometimes, so it may look less but isn't.

Are you really complaint about 4k? I mean that's not coming for years and years. I doubt they have worked on it at all yet... That's just future talk, just like hd was in the early 90s. If they don't carry your channels that others do, that's a great reason to switch. There is not a single thing I watch that DirecTV doesn't provide in hd, that's not an issue for me, but if my locals are favorite shows where missing, I'd probably change too...

Considering dish uses half the hard drive space for an hour of recording that DirecTV does, dish is doing something to their signal to make it fit that DirecTV isn't. I'd rather be missing a couple channels than screw up the signals like dish is obviously doing.

I presently have Directv but I am thinking about Dish because you can make a 211 Dish hd receiver into a dvr by paying a onetime fee of $40 and add an external drive, then you have no dvr fee. How come DTV cannot do this with thier HD receivers? I hate paying fees. I do not mind paying for programing but the fees I cannot stand. Also Dish lets you pay $99 up front and then you have HD free for life. this is another idea that DTV should use.